A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.
Documentary examining the rise and fall of the UK's greatest ports. The programme spans the first international traders arriving on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, through the arrival of the Romans, Elizabeth I's extension of British territory, and the huge impact of the tea trade and the Industrial Revolution.